Most traditional internal combustion (“IC”) engines suffer from an inherent dichotomy, in that the engines are configured for conventional ignition of the air/fuel mixture with the piston(s) and crankshaft at a top-dead-center (“TDC”) position. Although this position results in the best condition for combustion, it is the worst condition for combustion in relation to the mechanics of the piston and crankshaft. In terms of the physics or the chemistry of hydrocarbon combustion, for example, firing at TDC seems to make the most sense since this is the rotary position of the crankshaft lever arm and the linear position of the piston where a highest compression of the air/fuel mixture can be realized. This seemingly optimum rotary position for the ignition and subsequent combustion of the volatile air/fuel mixture has been found to generate a calculated amount of energy for a given amount a fuel.
For many conventional IC engines, even though TDC is the best rotary position for combustion efficiency as compression ratios are at their peak, it is also the most inefficient rotary position mechanically because the crank and the connecting rod are momentarily aligned vertically at TDC so as to essentially “lock” the linkage where only a minimal amount of torque may be realized at that position. This condition continues until the crankshaft has had a chance to rotate past TDC to an angular position having a greater moment arm. Consequently, a significant portion of the potential (or available) energy generated at the time of combustion is unable to be applied as mechanical work, and is instead absorbed by the engine's cooling system or unnecessarily wasted and discharged as hot exhaust gases. As a result of the extreme energy and power losses through the unrecovered heat, application of the IC engine's current four-stroke function with ignition at or near TDC notoriously yields largely unusable torque except in narrow RPM band widths.